In Name and Blood
by Lint
Summary: Two words, that's all it takes. Sequel to Cry, Little Sister. Complete. For Lee.
1. Chapter 1

Blood drips down your chin as you pull away gasping.

The new hunger inside demands to be sated, pushing away all rational thought, instinct viciously taking over the instant the scent hit your nose.

It shouldn't shouldn't taste, shouldn't feel, shouldn't _be_ this good.

The sensation on your tongue, sickly sweet and sliding down a parched throat, sets your veins alight with life.

Katherine's hand perches on your shoulder, looking up to see her satisfied smile, the thought that you've never seen her so proud. It hits you then, what she did, what you're doing with the body growing ever colder in your arms.

That hand squeezes reassuringly when the shaky breath escapes stained lips.

"Ssh," she says, lowering on her knees, chin replacing the hand on your shoulder and arms hugging you from behind. "Put it out of your mind. You don't have to feel it if you don't want to."

At first, you don't know how that's possible. Every sensation in your body feels as of they're set on fire, so how are you supposed to shut that off as easy as a switch? This girl in your arms was someone's daughter, someone's sister, who had a smile and a laugh. How can you simply not feel the guilt of the life you just took?

You start to shake and Katherine squeezes tighter, clinging to her arms as the tears threaten to spill.

"I-I can't."

She doesn't say anything more, just presses a light kiss into your hair, and doesn't let go until you've cried yourself dry.

/\

Though it seems silly, it's Stefan's reaction that concerns you most.

You're on even terms with him now, can walk a distance in the shoes he seems to struggle with, but a small part of you thinks what he liked most about your friendship was the human aspect. The part he seems to miss so desperately.

Watching his eyes carefully as they take in the new you, how they darken the slightest bit when the scent of blood catches his attention, you chew on the inside of your cheek and hope he doesn't hate you now.

"Elena," comes out softly as a hand reaches up to cup your cheek.

Damon and Katherine's watchful gaze is locked on the two of you, anticipating.

Somehow he knows, by the tiniest shrug of your shoulders, that what you've become wasn't a choice. He looks to Damon, the blame radiating clear.

"What did you do?" he asks, tone tinged with accusation.

Katherine keeps her mouth shut as Damon lifts both hands in the air.

"Whoa, whoa," he replies with furrowed brows. "Innocent bystander."

"Since when are you innocent?" Stefan shoots back, hands shifting from your cheeks to the sides of your arms.

It's not surprising, his reaction. The brothers history, what you've been told anyway, a constant push and pull with one another, the jealousy of loving the same woman never quite resolved.

"It wasn't him."

Stefan looks back to you, the obvious answer finally dawning. That Katherine's involvement hadn't even crossed his mind says something, though honestly you'd rather not hear, that she has him in a way you're just not going to be able to compete with.

Katherine steps closer, pulling his hands from your arms and holding them in her own.

"It's better this way," she says with a smile that makes you think _shark_.

/\

You can't go home, but you can't stay here.

Waking up face down in one of the Salvatore's guest beds, your arm reaches for Katherine, who had escorted you up here and stayed until the sandman came calling. Continually acting the older sibling despite the minimal age difference.

Padding barefoot across the hardwood floor, head tilted to listen for any indication that someone is up and about in the giant house. What you hear is a fly somewhere in the room, its buzzing suddenly like thunderclaps, drowning out any chance hearing the others.

Walking along the balcony, hand running lightly against the polished wood, you wonder what time it actually is. No clock in the room where you slept, and apparently none to be seen out here in the hall. Funny to think that this new condition didn't automatically result in staying up all night.

The sitting room is empty, as is the library, and it doesn't take a genius to deduce that Katherine is in Stefan's bedroom. No way are you going back upstairs to check for sure, and are two feet away from the kitchen when Damon appears in front of you with a glass extended in hand.

The smell sends your stomach into knots, reaching out to snatch it from him quicker than you ever thought it possible to move, and gulp the contents down with a disgusting eagerness.

"Easy tiger," he says with that crazy smile, taking the glass back and using his thumb to wipe the excess from the corner of your mouth.

Eyes meet for an awkward second before you look away.

"She with him isn't she?"

"Why ask a question if you already know the answer?"

Because you were kind of hoping to be wrong, that's why.

/\

It's the strangest thing, this new aversion to daylight.

You sit on the floor staring longingly at a sunbeam that stretches idly across the room, occasionally sticking out your hand to see how long you can take the sizzle and pop. It's up to eight seconds when Stefan turns a corner and smiles down at you.

"It's not fair you getting to play outside like a regular person."

"Friends in high places," he replies with a shrug before leaning against the wall and sliding down to sit next to you.

Eyes go to his ring, the garish and out of place accessory, what you wouldn't give for one of your own. Stefan sees what you're looking at, a tiny smile appearing on his face.

"I, uh," he starts, reaching into his pocket and pulling out something kept hidden in his palm. "Asked to be the one to give this to you."

Brows furrow with suspicion, but you return the smile and hold out your hand as he requests. He slips a simple silver ring onto your left hand, and guides it slowly back into the sun. Waiting for the pain that doesn't come, you almost laugh out loud at the realization.

You miss this. Him. Though you'd only known each other a few short weeks before the truth and the past came out to haunt you all, there was a friendship steadily building. One you'd come to value greatly.

"Where did-"

"Katherine," he says in way that offers no further explanation.

Always looking out, you think.

Stefan's hand still holds yours and you don't want him to let go.

It's the first time in your life you wonder how things would be if you didn't have a sister.

/\/\/\

Katherine says the world is yours. You can go anywhere, do anything.

So it's a little confusing when you end up doing nothing but hide away in the Salvatore house. The whole town is still looking for you and Katherine, faces shone on TV screens and milk cartons alike, and it kills to think what it's doing to Aunt Miranda and Uncle Gray. Jeremy too.

Wandering the halls, sticking your nose where it's most likely not welcome just as your sister does, and drinking out of Damon's private stash. Dying sure seems like the better option if eternity ends up being this dull. It does seem like she is waiting for something, Katherine, but never says for what.

You find her in the library one cloudy day, Stefan and Damon both off doing something you're not privy to, and want to make a crack about her being lost when you notice how she's huddled up in a corner, head resting on her knees.

At her side immediately, hand on her shoulder to feel how her body shakes ever so slightly, it's a strange realization that she's crying. Something she hasn't done, at least not so directly in front of you, since you were kids.

When she looks up with red rimmed eyes the sight is so bizarre you actually freeze for a second, unsure how to comfort someone who's always been the rock, always calm and conniving. Sinking to your knees, arms go around her further, taking a page from her book.

"Ssh, Kathy."

Brushing hair behind her ear, fingers looping through the curls, your forehead rests between her neck and shoulder. Her arms wrap around you, for a while just staying that way, huddled against each other.

"Katherine," she says in an odd tone. One that makes you pull back to see fresh tears welling in her eyes. "I'm Katherine."

If your heart still beat, it wouldn't in this moment.

"Of course you are."

It's meant to be reassuring, but your voice shakes anyway.

/\/\/\

At the top of the stairs, flipping through one of the old books that are scattered throughout the house, when a bag is dropped unceremoniously at your side.

"Come on," Katherine says without explanation.

For a second you only stare at her, wondering if she's serious, if you actually get to leave the house after days of being stuck. You reach for the bag, standing up faster than you mean to and almost falling down the stairs.

"Where are we going?"

"Road trip."

Stefan and Damon, oddly, aren't coming. Something the elder brother clearly takes offense to, those eyes of his pouty and scowling. Neither of them seem set on stopping you, though honestly you expected it. Resting against the car, Damon stands off to the side, while you watch as Stefan and Katherine say goodbye.

Her hands cup his face in a tenderness you don't think she's ever displayed, before wrapping her arms around his waist, head settling comfortably against him. His cheek rests atop her head, eyes fluttering closed.

The first thing Katherine ever told you about being a vampire, is that every sense and feeling is heightened, especially the negative ones. Seeing this display in front of your face, all you want is to turn it off.

"Hey," Damon says, a hand clasping around your wrist. "Be careful."

"We'll be fine."

"That's not what I mean," he goes on, looking at your siblings.

Back to you.

"She's more like Katerina than she realizes."

/\/\/\

You've talked about doing this.

Road tripping across the country after graduation, just the two of you.

Katherine drives while you watch the night pass by in an endless streak of black. Hardly any cars or towns pop up along the way, she choosing the most secluded road you've ever been on.

"Where are we going?"

"If I told you that," she replies, never taking her eyes off the road. "It wouldn't be a surprise."

Hours ticks by before the creeping sensation of hunger starts to spread throughout your body in a way so much sharper than a simple pang. The gas station that appears in the distance seems like a mirage at first, the old yellow lights that surround it barely penetrating through the dark. The tank is half full but Katherine pulls up in front the the pumps anyway.

"What are you doing?"

Katherine smiles in that unnerving fashion she's been perfecting since you were little.

"Provisions."

You stay in your seat, while she fills up and makes her way inside to pay, but do end up getting out of the car to stretch your legs. Looking up and down the highway, seeing nothing in either direction, you note that this place is quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

Minutes pass and Katherine doesn't come back. You try to look in the windows of the mini mart, wondering why she's taking her sweet ass time, but are unable to see past all the ads plastered to the glass. Waiting another full minute before going to check on her, your eyes take almost as long to adjust to the harsh fluorescent lighting.

There's no one behind the counter, nor in the aisles, as you crane your neck around trying to get the super senses to kick in.

"Katherine?"

Passing an out of order soda machine toward the back, you peer into the void beyond a cracked door marked Staff Only.

"Come on, this isn't funny."

In front of a rack of snack cakes when you smell it. Blood. So raw and fresh. Feet guide you automatically to the cash register, looking over the counter to see Katherine tearing into the arteries of the attendant. Her head snaps up instantly, the feral hiss and flash of fangs causing you to take a step back.

She regains her composure quickly, head tilting with a satisfied grin.

"Want some?"

It's ridiculous, you think, toes curling against the struggle inside to keep the monster at bay. The more you try to resist, the louder his slowly stopping heart beats, the better his blood smells. Katherine's hand reaches out just when it seems like you'll burst from the pressure. Feeling the shift in your eyes, you move faster than you can think, moaning against the sweet light of life that dies against your mouth.

/\/\/\

As if this whole excursion wasn't already full of unanswered questions, more just pile up when she drives through the entrance gate. The unasked question of _what are we doing here?_ Hangs in the air, punctuated by a knowing arch of Katherine's brow.

"Trust me," she says, not looking away until you nod a reply.

Trust isn't an issue. It never has been. You know better than anyone who she is and what she's capable of. And no matter what she says or does, you are always forgiving. Because she's your sister, because you love her, because you don't know how to be yourself without her.

It's still early enough that there aren't any staff or students walking around. Katherine, who you know for a fact has never been here before, seems keenly aware of where to go. A left here, a right there, walking up some stairs and into an office that is oddly larger than you would have thought for title posted next to the door.

There are two desks inside though neither one of them is occupied.

"Okay, out with it. Why are we here?"

"Patience," she replies, looking at her nails.

"I've been patient!"

It comes out louder than you mean it to, but once it starts you can't seem to stop, eyes black and fangs flashing.

"You! Do this to me and don't even, you don't even _ask_. And then we stay locked up in that house for days rotting away, while everyone we love thinks we're missing or dead, and you never give a reason why. Then it's_ come on let's go_ in the middle of the night, driving through nothing to nowhere, and you still don't want to tell me anything! No secrets, Katherine. Ever. We promised."

As soon as the rant stops the flush creeps into your cheeks, almost immediately wanting to apologize, you never the aggressor. You don't say you're sorry, and Katherine doesn't look the least bit shocked at the outburst, probably aware of it building inside for awhile now. She takes a step toward you, when the door opens, and suddenly it feels like you're dreaming.

"Hello, Elena."

Two words, that's all it takes.

You're eight years old again. Half asleep, thirsty, and barefoot.

"Mom?"


	2. Chapter 2

"It's good to see you again."

Katherine puts her hands on your arms, gauging the reaction, but all you can do is stand there. You've thought about this woman, spent endless nights waking up screaming from dreams about what she'd become, since the day she left. The family she created not good enough to have kept her attention, her own wants and needs coming before anyone else.

Watching as she skirts around you and Katherine standing in the middle of the room, to drop the bag slung over her shoulder onto one of the desks, her body language is too casual. The sight of her long lost daughters is not even worth a faked amount of surprise.

"I'd forgotten," she says with a smile far too warm for the situation. "How much you look alike."

That tiny gesture is what sends you over the edge, on her in an instant slamming her back onto the desk, mouth snarled and angry.

"You don't get to talk to us like that. You don't get to look at us with a fondness of a mother who might actually have cared."

She's stronger than you, something learned the hard way when the ceiling is suddenly the only thing you see. Her hand is on your chest, pinning you to the floor, and though it's the last thing you want to admit there is a tinge of remorse reflected in her eyes.

"Oh Elena," she says softly, using her other hand to caress your cheek. "Don't be upset."

Katherine grabs her arm before you can push, pulling her off and helping you up at the same time, she takes a second to ensure that Mom didn't actually hurt anything and sighs quietly.

"You haven't told her," Mom says.

"What is she talking about?"

Katherine chews the inside of her cheek, something she's always done when getting caught with her hand in the cookie jar, but a sense of dread starts to form that it's so much bigger than that. There's a notable shift in her eyes, one you'd seen on the night she came back, talking about that girl in the picture.

"Katerina?"

There's the strangest tone in your mother's voice. Something anxious mixed with a hint of longing.

"Katherine," your sister says, looking to you for some kind of reassurance. "I'm Katherine."

"What is going on?"

It's aimed at your mother, but you don't look away.

"This wasn't the plan," comes the reply.

It's incredibly awkward, sitting on a chaise lounge tucked away in the corner of the office with Katherine's arm looped through yours, listening to your mother tell a romanticized tale of meeting Katerina Petrova at the tender age of sixteen.

The way she talks, it's as if she thought herself a kind of Cinderella wasting away her life, until a vampire fairy godmother swooped in to take her away.

"Katerina was a bad girl, in a bad way, with some bad people. So she hatched a plan."

Katherine's hands are bunched in fists resting on her lap. Listening to Mom's words, a story almost repeated of the one she told you, it doesn't take speaking for you to know what she feels. To know that she does not want any of them to be true.

"What kind of plan?"

Mom frowns at the interruption, but this part you heard, it's the details that Katherine danced around in her own little speech that you want.

"I got pregnant shortly after we met," she continues, folding her hands in front of her. "The man she was running from, had this neat little trick, and all she needed to pull it off was to know the right kind of witch. Lucky for her, she knew a lot of them. "

A picture is starting to form. What Katerina wanted, what your mother agreed to. It's ridiculous, you think. Magic or no, it's not the kind of thing that actually _happens_. A side glance at your sister, still chewing on the inside of her cheek and looking into her lap, it only takes a millisecond to realize that it doesn't matter.

"I didn't know there were two of you at the time. That might not have changed anything, but-"

Whatever the circumstance of your birth, whatever deal with the devil you were the product of, you came into this world together. Spent nearly every minute of your lives together, and loved one another in a bond few could begin to understand.

"She promised me that if I did this, she would make me like her. "

There are other things you're curious about. Like why it took so long for her to get turned. Why she ever bothered marrying your father. Why she lived out the domestic life if the plan was to leave as soon as she got what she wanted. Though you're pretty sure none of the answers she might give would ever begin to satisfy.

The last memory of her, that night you remember so vividly, she came back. These new details have you wondering why though the answer seems so painfully obvious.

"You were going to take her away."

Both of their eyes turn to you at once.

"She wasn't Katerina born again, you knew that, but were going to try and raise her that way weren't you? So when she was old enough, when this memory trigger went off, she wouldn't be as torn as she is now."

Wait for a denial, an acknowledgment, _something. _

"The last time I saw you, in the kitchen with Daddy, you came back for Katherine but it was me that walked down the stairs."

Katherine grabs your hand and squeezes.

"Yes."

"Why now? After all this time?"

"Plan B," she replies with the hint of a smile. "Memory trigger, well put."

"Why didn't you just try again?"

"Your father kept me away," she replies. "First with vervain and never letting you out of his sight. Then by taking you to his brother's house. He knew I could never get close to you there."

"How?"

"The Gilbert's, along with all the other founding families, have been involved with vampires since that little town became a blip on the map."

It's a sobering thought. Uncle Gray and Aunt Miranda knowing exactly what happened to your mother, why Daddy left you with them, and what your disappearance undoubtedly means.

"It was you, wasn't it? You turned her."

That tinge in her eye appears again, there and gone in a flash.

"Of course it was."

It takes a second to absorb that, to imagine the woman smiling in all those pictures when you were babies, taking a life she helped create.

"So what happens now? Plan C? D?"

The pause in conversation almost makes you laugh, the whole phoenix rising scenario so overwrought with details gone wrong, it's a wonder any of it happened at all.

"If it comes to that."

_No._ The thought is all consuming. _No._ You can't, won't, let her erase your sister from existence simply because there's a ghost locked away inside of her. _No._ She can't tear her way back into your lives after abandoning your for redder pastures. _No._ This will not happen.

"Her plan failed. Her back up plan failed. Some people don't always get what they want. Some shouldn't. If she was as bad as you say then maybe it's a good thing that she's gone."

Mom just looks at you.

"She's not your precious Katerina. She doesn't want to be."

"Elena-"

"If there's a part of you that ever was our mother, you won't take her from me."

/\/\/\

The road barely traveled is not much different in the daylight. Hardly any cars pass, the never ending mass of trees running alongside the highway blur just as the cover of night did. Your perspective, however, is preferable. In the driver's seat while Katherine, much more herself the further away you get from North Carolina, gives direction. You can't stay once you get back, you know that, but drive on anyway.

For a moment, you honestly thought Mom wasn't going to let you leave. Only a united front from you and Katherine got some kind of understanding out of her. That Katerina is gone and you'll do anything you have to, to keep it that way. Wasn't much point in staying after that.

"Why did you take me there?"

Not sure how much time passes before you actually get the gall to ask the question. Katherine contemplates it, long enough to have you think she's not going to answer, but eventually her eyes glance sidelong at your face.

"You needed to hear it."

"But you told me the night you came back."

"Yes, and you didn't want to believe a word I said. You needed to see that I wasn't crazy, that I wasn't making it up, you needed to to know it was all true."

Looking you up and down. "You did good with her. I'm proud of you."

Katherine chews in the inside of her cheek when shamed or embarrassed, you bite your lip, something you can't help but do in the moment.

"I swear, you're flair for the dramatic is going to be the death of me one day."

She stares at you incredulously, the crude attempt at humor hardly your style, before bursting into laughter.

"Please," she says with a devilish grin. "You'd be dull as dishwater without me."

That you don't have a comeback for.

"So are you like a schizo now? Ghost of a past life version of yourself floating around in your head and everything."

She jabs you in the ribs, causing the car to swerve into the other lane, and thankfully the highway is empty despite the time of day. For awhile the two of you keep it up, jokes and teasing, conversations like the one's you used to have from your beds in the middle of the night.

"Hey, about you and Stefan."

You've figured it out, she and him. Something Mom said that sticks with you. How you won't be able to look at him the same.

"Yeah?"

"I can deal with it."

She's not facing you, but when you look over, you can see her smile in the reflection of the window.

Hours tick by when the goodwill tapers off and somber reality begins to set in. You know the truth now, for all the good it does. Getting the story from your Mother didn't exactly fix Katherine's problem. If anything if only makes the idea that one day she's just going to snap, more prevalent in your mind.

Passing the same gas station, nothing looks out of place. You wonder if the attendant is still where you left him, sprawled out on the floor amongst a few losing lottery tickets that didn't quite make the trash can. You wonder how long it will take for someone to notice he's gone.

Going home is was never an option, though a small part of you kind of hoped there was some way to make it work, it isn't worth the risk. You can never see your Aunt and Uncle again. Or Jeremy. Bonnie, who's been your best friend since you moved to Mystic Falls. Matt and Caroline always a close second. You'll never graduate high school with them, never go to college in the way you're supposed to. Because you're dead. Because you're a monster. God, the thought of being seventeen forever is nothing short of terrifying.

Katherine looks to you then, like she knows what you're thinking, like she is the only one who will ever truly understand.

/\/\/\

Stefan and Damon are waiting on the porch when you pull up, both clearly happy to see you. Stefan's eyes catch yours before moving to Katherine, a warm smile on his lips. The first thing you do is smack it clean off his face. Damon snorts into his fist as Katherine shouts your name, but you ignore them.

Leaning in close, lips just below his ear.

"I have to congratulate you, Mr. Salvatore."

His brows furrow together, trying to figure what you mean.

"For lying to me, to us. So long and so well, it's definitely a skill I didn't think you capable of."

"Elena I don't know what you-"

"Plan B."

You can feel him tense, the words dying on his tongue. From the day he came across you in the cemetery, to meeting Katherine, to her finding the picture. None of it was coincidence.

"Yeah, Katerina Petrova was the cat's meow, and you spent over a century adoring her. I don't get it, and probably never will. What I do know? Katherine is here now, she loves you, and if you ever break her heart I will drive a stake through yours."

You brush past him into the house, Damon quick to follow.

"Oh, you have to tell me what that was about," he says, thumb pointing over his shoulder.

Katherine and Stefan are a silhouette through the half closed door, you watch as she kisses the spot where your hand made contact.

"Just me getting over something."

/\/\/\

The moon is directly overhead, light scattering down the through the trees. Standing across the street from the house you've lived half a life, the family that took you in and cared for you like their own. A silent goodbye as close as you'll ever get again. Another part of you dies away. Your hand reaches out for hers, fingers loosely entwined.

"If I asked now, would you tell me?"

"What?"

"Why you-"

"Oh."

A beat passes.

"Forever is a long time, Laney." She says softly. "Do you really think I would want one minute of it without you?"

You don't think that, not even for a second.

Everything together.

Always together.


End file.
